Direct-to-Consumer Advertising of Pharmaceuticals: An Integrative Review - Innovation and Marketing in the Pharmaceutical Industry - page 622

Trends in Promoonal Spending for Prescripon
Drugs, 1996 - 2010 (billion $)

7.3

7

8

6.9 6.9

6.5

6.4

6.3

6.2

7

5.8

5.5

5.1

6 4.9 4.9

Direct-to-consumer
Adversing
Sales Rep Details

4.4 4.4

4.3 4.3

4.1 4.1

4

5

3.4

3.3

3

4

2.7

2.6

2.5

3

1.8

1.3

1.1

2

0.8

Professional Journal
Adversing

1

0.3

0.3

0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5

0.4 0.4 0.4 0.4

0

Fig. 21.3 Trends in promotional spending for prescription drugs in the USA. Sources : (1) 2005-
2010 data are from IMS Health: http://www.imshealth.com/portal/site/imshealth/menuitem.a953a
ef4d73d1ecd88f611019418c22a/?vgnextoid=bb967900b55a5110VgnVCM10000071812ca2R
CRD . (2) 1994-2004 data are from Frank et al. ( 2002 ) and Donohue et al. ( 2007 ), both of which
cite IMS Health. Chesnes and Jin ( 2011 ), used with permission

Total Annual Direct to Consumer Adversing (All Rx Drugs)

$6,000.00

Radio

$5,000.00

TV Magazines Internet Newspapers Radio

Internet

$4,000.00

Magazines

$3,000.00

Newspapers

$2,000.00

TV

$1,000.00

$-

1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001

Year

2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

Fig. 21.4 Total annual direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) by medium and year. Source :
Chesnes and Jin ( 2011 ), used with permission

The growth of online DTCA raises some critical concerns. One is that the US
FDA has not issued guidelines for this form of DTCA leading to concerns about
patient safety. Liang and Mackey ( 2011a ) note that “online DTCA has emerged as an
unregulated marketing tool for illegitimate and illicit sources alike, and consumers